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Paul's authority is powerful:
v. 7. Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.
v. 8. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed,
v. 9. that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
v. 10. For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible.
v. 11. Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.
With this thought, that he will duly avenge all disobedience to his apostolic preaching, Paul returns to the thought of v. 1, since his slanderers had construed his leniency and patience as cowardice. He therefore addresses himself to such as listened to the calumniators: Do you look on the things before pour face? They were paying attention to, and judging by, outward appearances, thereby doing him a severe wrong. For it is not a commanding presence and the ability to insinuate oneself into people's good graces that determine the apostle's value, but the fact of authority derived from Christ. If there were any such in the congregation at Corinth, Paul wanted them to know that if anyone had the certainty, the confidence, that he belonged to Christ, either according to his person or in his office, he should consider the fact which he has been told before once more, he should reason it out within himself, that Paul and his fellow-teachers were just as definitely and certainly disciples and teachers of Christ. So much at least they ought to concede him (with another sarcastic thrust) that he be given a place by their side in the Church of Christ. It was a most effective way of asserting his apostolic authority.
Just as gently and effectively, however, he brings this out in the next sentence: For if I should indeed boast somewhat more abundantly of our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be brought to shame, in order that I do not seem as if I would scare you by my letters. If his opponents should go so far as to deny him the right even to stand by the side of the Corinthian Christians as a fellow-disciple, this fact might cause him to do what he did not care to do, namely, to boast. But should he be indeed driven to that point, much to his disgust, that he must bring his person forward, that he must insist upon his authority, which, as he reminds his readers, has the object of serving for their building up in faith and knowledge and not for casting them down, he would be fully justified in his confident words. For his purpose in writing in such a severe tone is not to terrify or intimidate them, but to build them up. Even if the power to bind should be applied, its purpose would be the saving of souls, not the destruction and dispersal of the congregation. He was willing rather to bear the rumor that he was cowardly than to apply the authority granted him by the Lord in an unwarranted manner.
But the authority was his, nevertheless, as lie asserts with reference to the reports which were being spread by his enemies, who said that his letters were weighty and powerful, that he used expressions and made threats in his letters which were important, impressive, forcible. But they advised people not to be intimidated, because his bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible. They implied that his bodily presence was not commanding, it lacked power, just as his oral instructions had been received with contempt. It seems that, although Paul was an able and effective speaker, his excessive humility in Corinth had not permitted these facts to appear in the proper nay, and the result was such as to make him appear all but ridiculous in the eyes of his enemies. But Paul's answer to people of that character is: Let such a one reckon that, such as we arc in word by letters when absent, such are we also in deed when present. It would be an easy matter for him to lay aside his benevolent meekness and to come, in both appearance and speech, as the apostle of the Lord, vested with an authority whose power they would soon feel. He would show them the perfect harmony between his threats and the execution of his words; his personal influence would be found to be fully as important and energetic as that which he had shown in his writings.